The present invention relates to an apparatus and a method for information processing, a recording medium, and a program and, particularly, to an apparatus and a method for information processing, a recording medium, and a program that can efficiently deliver data via a network according to the degree of importance of the data.
The technology of delivering various data via a network is coming into common use. For example, a conventional car navigation apparatus calculates a current position from information obtained by a GPS (Global Positioning System) and an acceleration sensor in response to the input of a destination, retrieves a route from the current position to the destination from map data prerecorded on a CD (Compact Disc) or a DVD (Digital Versatile Disc), and displays a corresponding map data by CG (Computer Graphics) or the like. However, in an actual route display, simply displaying a route on a map often does not help the user traveling on an unfamiliar road choose a correct road. Hence, there is a desire to display images on the route. However, to record route image data on a CD or a DVD together with the map data requires an enormous amount of data. Moreover, when there are trees lining the route, for example, the color and amount of leaves of the trees and the like are varied with the season. To store image data corresponding to such conditions also requires an enormous amount of data. There is thus a limit to the amount of data that can be actually handled.
In order to solve this problem, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-32374 proposes a system in which a data generating apparatus generates data of images on the route, and a server manages the image data generated by the data generating apparatus and transfers the image data to a terminal apparatus as a car navigation apparatus for display as required via a network.
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a car navigation system using a network, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-32374. A server 1 stores image data picked up by data generating apparatuses 2-1 to 2-n installed in a plurality of different areas, in correspondence with a position on a map. Terminal apparatuses 3-1 to 3-n, as car navigation apparatus mounted in a motor vehicle or the like driven by each user himself/herself, retrieve a route from a current position to a destination in response to the input of the destination, as with the foregoing conventional car navigation apparatus, receive corresponding image data from the server 1 via a network 4, and then display the image data. Incidentally, in the description below, where there is no need to individually distinguish the data generating apparatuses 2-1 to 2-n or the terminal apparatuses 3-1 to 3-n, the data generating apparatuses 2-1 to 2-n or the terminal apparatuses 3-1 to 3-n will be referred to simply as a data generating apparatus 2 or a terminal apparatus 3. The same applies to other apparatuses.
A control unit 13 is a so-called microcomputer formed of a CPU (Central Processing Unit), a RAM (Random Access Memory), and a ROM (Read Only Memory). The control unit 13 expands a program prestored in the ROM into the RAM and executes the program to thereby control an image retrieving unit 11, a communication unit 12, and a storage unit 14 that are each connected to the control unit 13 via a bus 15. Also, the control unit 13 controls the communication unit 12 to store image data transmitted from the data generating apparatus 2 via the network 4 in the storage unit 14 together with positional information. In addition, the control unit 13 retrieves image data stored in the storage unit 14 on the basis of route information inputted from the terminal apparatus 3 to the communication unit 12 via the network 4, and then controls the communication unit 12 to transmit the retrieved image data to the terminal apparatus 3 via the network 4.
FIG. 2 shows a configuration of the data generating apparatus 2.
The data generating apparatus 2 is mounted in a motor vehicle, for example. The data generating apparatus 2 picks up image data to be used as route image data in the storage unit 14 of the server 1 and transmits the image data to the server
A control unit 33 of the data generating apparatus 2 is a so-called microcomputer formed of a CPU, a RAM, and a ROM, and it controls the operation of the whole data generating apparatus 2. An image pickup unit 31 is controlled by the control unit 33 and is formed by a CCD (Charge Coupled Device), for example. The image pickup unit 31 outputs picked-up still image data to a storage unit 34 to store the still image data in the storage unit 34. The image pickup unit 31 also obtains the angular velocity from a gyro 31a included therein and outputs the angular velocity to the control unit 33. A GPS receiver 32 receives radio waves emitted from a plurality of stationary satellites not shown in the figure, thereby determines positional information of latitude and longitude on the earth, and then outputs the positional information to the control unit 33. The control unit 33 stores the image data picked up by the image pickup unit 31 in the storage unit 34 together with the corresponding angular velocity and positional information, including the latitude and longitude. The control unit 33 also controls a communication unit 35 to transmit the image data stored in the storage unit 34 to the server 1 via the network 4.
The terminal apparatus 3 is a so-called car navigation apparatus mounted in a motor vehicle or the like used by a user. A control unit 56 is a so-called microcomputer formed of a CPU, a RAM, a ROM and the like. The control unit 56 controls an image retrieving unit 51, a position detecting unit 52, an image display unit 53, a communication unit 54, a storage unit 55, and an input unit 57 that are each connected to a bus 58.
When, for example, a destination is inputted from the input unit 57 on the basis of a current position detected by the position detecting unit 52, the shortest route from the current position to the destination is retrieved from map data stored in the storage unit 55. In this case, the image retrieving unit 51 retrieves corresponding route image data stored in the storage unit 55. When the image retrieving unit 51 retrieves no data, the communication unit 54 is controlled to transmit the route information to the server 1 via the network 4 to request the image data. When receiving the image data from the server 1, the communication unit 54 stores the image data in the storage unit 55. The image retrieving unit 51 then reads the image data corresponding to the route and displays the image data on the image display unit 53.
The processing of the server 1 of recording image data transmitted from the data generating apparatus 2 will be described next. The image pickup unit 31 of the data generating apparatus 2 picks up images on the retrieved route and stores the image data in the storage unit 34. At this time, the control unit 33 stores the angular velocity outputted from the gyro 31a and positional information inputted from the GPS receiver 32 in the storage unit 34 in correspondence with the picked-up image data. The control unit 33 then controls the communication unit 35 to transmit the image data stored in the storage unit 34 in correspondence with the positional information. Specifically, as shown in FIG. 4, the image data are stored with the X set as an ID (Identifier) of still image data picked up by the image pickup unit 31 at a position indicated by positional information AA and with the Y set as an ID of still image data picked up by the image pickup unit 31 at a position indicated by positional information BB.
The control unit 33 then controls the communication unit 35 to transmit the image data stored in the storage unit 34 to the server 1 together with the positional information, as shown in FIG. 4.
The control unit 13 of the server 1 controls the communication unit 12 to receive the image data transmitted from the data generating apparatus 2 via the network 4 and store the image data in the storage unit 14 together with the positional information.
The processing of delivering image data by the server 1 on the basis of route information from the terminal apparatus 3 and displaying the image data by the terminal apparatus 3 will be described next.
When the input unit 57 of the terminal apparatus 3 is operated by the user to input a destination, the control unit 56 inquires a current position of the position detecting unit 52 and retrieves a route from the current position to the destination on the basis of the map data stored in the storage unit 55. The image retrieving unit 51 retrieves image data stored in the storage unit 55 on the basis of the retrieved route information. When the desired image data is not stored in the storage unit 55, the control unit 56 controls the communication unit 54 to transmit the route information to the server 1 and request corresponding image data.
The control unit 13 of the server 1 controls the communication unit 12 to receive the route information and a signal requesting image data from the terminal apparatus 3. The control unit 13 controls the image retrieving unit 11 to retrieve image data stored in the storage unit 14 on the basis of the route information transmitted from the terminal apparatus 3. At this time, the image retrieving unit 11 retrieves a still image data ID corresponding to positional information, as shown in FIG. 4, on the basis of the route information and, thereby, retrieves the corresponding still image data. The control unit 13 controls the communication unit 12 to transmit the image data retrieved by the image retrieving unit 11 to the terminal apparatus 3 via the network 4.
The control unit 56 of the terminal apparatus 3 controls the communication unit 54 to receive the image data from the server 1 and store the image data in the storage unit 55. The control unit 56 reads from the storage unit 55 the image data corresponding to the positional information inputted from the position detecting unit 52 and displays the image data on the image display unit 53.
Such processing allows the terminal apparatus 3 to obtain the image data corresponding to the retrieved route from the server 1 and display the image data.
However, in the case of the car navigation system using the server 1, as shown in FIG. 1, image data stored in the storage unit 14 are delivered regardless of the band of the network (transmission medium) 4 where transmission is possible, the congestion status of transmission traffic, the performance of the terminal apparatus 3 and the like. Therefore, the communication takes too much time, and, also, the communication""s cost is increased.
In addition, when the terminal apparatus 3 requests image data corresponding to a route from a point A to another point B, the storage unit 14 of the server 1 does not necessarily store the requested image data corresponding to the route information. Therefore, in order to deal with every route combination, a mass storage device capable of storing an enormous amount of image data for all the routes will be provided as the storage unit 14 of the server 1, thus increasing the cost of the storage device.
On the other hand, with only image data limited by the storage capacity of the storage unit 14 of the server 1, routes that the server 1 can provide to the terminal apparatus 3 are limited. Even if a selection is made from the images stored in the storage unit 14 to obtain images including those of point A and point B, images including those of unnecessary sections preceding point A and succeeding point B are delivered, thus unnecessarily increasing the communication cost.
Furthermore, since the car navigation system shown in FIGS. 1 to 3 only can select data, such as images, and deliver the data back to the terminal apparatus 3 in response to a request from the terminal apparatus 3 at all times, the car navigation system cannot meet the desire to broadcast to multiple terminal apparatuses 3.
The present invention has been made in view of the above, and it is accordingly an object of the present invention to efficiently deliver data via a network.
According to the present invention, there is provided an information processing apparatus which includes: moving image data storing means for storing moving image data; degree of importance setting means for setting the degree of importance of the moving image data; thinning-out means for thinning out the moving image data on the basis of the degree of importance and, thereby, generating thinned-out data; and transmitting means for transmitting the thinned-out data to another information processing apparatus.
The information processing apparatus can further include map data storing means for storing map data and traveling route retrieving means for retrieving a traveling route from a specified starting position to a specified destination on the basis of the map data, wherein the degree of importance setting means sets the degree of importance of the moving image data corresponding to the traveling route.
According to the present invention, there is provided a first information processing apparatus which includes: moving image data recording means for recording moving image data; degree of importance setting means for setting the degree of importance of the moving image data; storing means for storing the moving image data and the degree of importance; and transmitting means for transmitting the moving image data and the degree of importance to another information processing apparatus.
The moving image data can be moving image data for a guiding route, and the degree of importance can be the degree of importance on the guiding route.
The degree of importance setting means can set high the degree of importance of moving image data of a section near a main point on the guiding route.
The main point can include a starting point, an ending point, a signal, a sign, or an access to and an exit from an expressway, an intersection, a main building, or a station on the guiding route.
According to the present invention, there is provided a second information processing apparatus which includes: moving image data receiving means for receiving moving image data transmitted from another information processing apparatus; degree of importance setting means for setting the degree of importance of the moving image data; and reproducing means for reproducing the moving image data on the basis of the degree of importance.
The information processing apparatus and method according to the present invention store moving image data, set degree of importance of the moving image data, thin out the moving image data on the basis of the degree of importance and thereby generate thinned-out data, and transmit the thinned-out data to another information processing apparatus. Therefore, it is possible to reduce an amount of data delivered to the data terminal apparatus and thereby improve the communication cost and the communication speed.
In addition, the information processing apparatus and method according to the present invention record moving image data, set the degree of importance of the moving image data, store the moving image data and the degree of importance, and transmit the moving image data and the degree of importance to another information processing apparatus.
Furthermore, the information processing apparatus and method according to the present invention receive moving image data transmitted from another information processing apparatus, set the degree of importance of the moving image data, and reproduce the moving image data on the basis of the degree of importance.
With any of the information processing apparatus and method, it is consequently possible to reduce the amount of data delivered to the data terminal apparatus and thereby improve the communication cost and the communication speed.